A Brave New World
by Somewhere In the Clouds
Summary: Daemon AU in which Konoha fell 30 years ago, the shinobi clans are scattered, fighting amongst one another, and the elemental countries have regressed back to their feudal states. Naruto has grown ignorant of the world, hidden away by his family. Sasuke lives amongst his ruthless, squabbling clan. Sakura grows up a foreigner, knowing only of shinobi from her books.
1. Scar Tissue

**A/N:** I needed to take a break from writing _History Will Be Kind To Me_ for a little while, so I decided to start this fic. I've had the notes for this written down for the last couple of years. Thought it was time to finally pull them out and put them to use. I'm going to say straight out the gate that this won't be your typical story. Every chapter is going to follow a different character and the the story as a whole is less of a structured plot as it is an exploration of the world and its inhabitants. As such, each chapter is going to be more of a drabble than a real chapter. If that's not your cup of tea, I completely understand. Also, it should be said that I stopped reading the manga sometimes after the Fourth Shinobi War Arc. It just got too ridiculous for me to continue. As such, any and all plot points that came up during or after that arc are likely to not show up in this fic. Sorry if that irritates anyone.

Anyway, yes, this is one of those 'daemon fics' you might've seen elsewhere. If you're at all familiar with _His Dark Materials Trilogy_ than this won't be new territory for you. For those who _are not_ familiar however, basically a daemon is the soul-familiar of a human being. During childhood it takes various animal shapes until the child hits puberty and finally settles on one animal shape that best represents the personality of its human. Typically women have male daemons and men have female daemons, but sometimes this is reversed (usually being a sign of homosexual preferences or just a 'queerness' about the person in general). If a daemon is severed from its human counterpart, then either death or insanity generally occur. Sometimes the two are able to survive somewhat normally, but they are never the same.

Wow, this turned into a long author's note. I'm gonna just shut up now.

**A Brave New World**

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies." - _Aristotle_

**01. Scar Tissue**

Naruto grows up in the middle of a war.

Not that he would know this of course. He has spent his whole life on his isolated island home after all, surrounded by his family. Still, there are inklings. Strangers would appear at odd hours to see his father. Haunted looking men with vicious wolves or watchful felines for daemons. Or dark women with fierce raptors on their shoulders or venomous serpents coiled around their wrists. None of this seemed to faze his father, Minato Namikaze, who would usher them into his house with the same serious look on his face every time they appeared. Sometimes he would hear snatches of his father's conversations. Words like _Iwa_ or _Daimyo_ and _Konoha_ came up most often. Naruto wasn't exactly sure what any of these words meant, though he knew they were important by the hushed, secretive tones his father and his associates used.

Mostly though, Naruto was oblivious. He and Efrosyni spent their days climbing trees and scouring the beach with his sister Izumi for pretty shells to bring back to his mother. In fact, he spent most of his days devoted to his mother. Naruto is not stupid. For all his ignorance of the world outside his tiny island home, he knows that his mother is not normal. His father has sleek Austeja and his half-wild sister has clever Melqart and Naruto has quick and curious Efrosyni.

Kushina is alone.

His father had once told Naruto that a monster had eaten Illtyd. He told him that Illtyd had been a ferocious monkey with snow-white fur and a face the color of the summer sea.

Sometimes it seemed like their daemons wanted to fill in the gap at her side. Melqart would chatter incessantly on her shoulder, and Efrosyni would sing to her as a pretty wren. Austeja was the one who stayed with her most. Minato's daemon, a slim spotted cat larger than a hound, would settle at Kushina's side and rest her head on the woman's lap.

Sometimes Naruto wondered what his mother had been like before Illtyd had been taken from her.

* * *

Sometimes Minato thinks his daemon understands his wife better than he does.

Some days Kushina is her old self, wild and passionate with fire in her eyes. She'll laugh with their children by day, chasing them through the sand and sea-spray as if nothing has changed. By night Kushina would sear his flesh with her tongue and hands and for a while Minato could forget the bad days.

Other days…other days Minato would find his wife sitting on the porch, eyes cast off into the distance with Austeja's head buried in her lap. On these days Kushina would cling to his daemon, calling her Illtyd and murmur apologies to a creature she'd lost more than 25 years ago.

Minato didn't even try to fathom the pain his wife had been in nearly her whole life. After all, Minato hadn't had his daemon eaten by a monster before his very eyes. He hadn't had that same monster locked away inside his head to slowly drive him mad. Stronger men than he had taken on the same challenge and become monsters themselves.

Still, he loves her all the same. Just as he loves their children.

Every day he fights to keep his family hidden. He still remembers the fall. He had barely been hokage a year before the war tore his village asunder and left his people scattered to the winds. He had loved his village, but in the end, he had loved his family more. So he fled. And Minato was still clever. He knew Kumo and Iwa's influence was all but nonexistent here. No one dared venture anywhere near the Land of Water these days. Not since the Sanbi broke free of its host and laid waste to the land 20 years ago. Even now it lurked in the depths, waiting for anyone stupid enough to come near. Stupid enough, that is, unless you were the husband of the Kyūbi Jinchūriki.

Wisely, the Sanbi keeps its distance.

Still, Minato wonders how long he and his family can play their game of hide n' seek. Sooner or later, someone will find them.

**A/N:** The title of this chapter comes from the song _Scar Tissue_ by The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

In this AU, jinchūrikis are created by the potential host's daemon being offered up in sacrifice and the bijū consuming said daemon, thus sealing them into the host's body. This is why poor Kushina is so unstable. And she's one of the more _sane_ ones…

As for character's ages and their daemons:

**Minato** (40) - **Austeja** (cheetah)

**Kushina** (39) - **Illtyd** (golden snub-nosed monkey)

**Naruto** (12) - **Efrosyni** (unsettled)

**Izumi** (7) - **Melqart** (unsettled)


	2. Lead Me Home

**A/N:** As much as Canon-Sasuke likes to look back on his Clan with rose-tinted glasses, I don't actually believe the Uchiha Clan was a fun family to live amongst. Growing up during strife as foreigners in a foreign land has got to make it even less fun.

The title of this chapter comes from the song _Lead Me Home_ by Jamie N Commons.

**A Brave New World**

"My family is my strength and my weakness." - _Aishwarya Rai Bachchan_

**02. Lead Me Home**

He could hear them arguing again.

Every night Sasuke's father demanded his heir agree to a betrothal and every night Itachi would resolutely refuse.

"You cannot behave this way forever!" The force of Fugaku's voice vibrated through the thin walls and Ksenija curled into the crook of his arm as a cat. His brother's response was muffled and unintelligible, but his daemon Sethunya's was not. She growled and Sasuke could practically feel it reverberate through his very bones.

"Don't you _dare_ turn your back on me!" but the 'crack' of the slammed shōji panel seemed to signal the end of the conversation.

For now anyway.

When morning came Sasuke found himself glancing between his father and brother at breakfast wearily, both of whom seemed intent upon behaving as if absolutely nothing had transpired the night before. Or the night _before_ that…and the night before _that_ one. It was a useless ruse. Every Uchiha in the compound had likely heard their argument. The twins, however, seemed oblivious to such intricacies of human behavior and munched on their rice happily while their daemons endeavored to draw Ksenija (unsuccessfully) into a game under the table.

After breakfast, Fugaku and Nadezhda swept out of the house to discuss business with the clan elders as were their wont and Itachi left for a mission, Sethunya trailing after him like a deadly dark shadow. Sasuke would have liked to join his brother, but he was still considered 'too young' to leave the safety of the compound. Of course he thought this was incredibly unfair considering Itachi had begun accompanying their kin on missions since the age of nine.

Sasuke had only been outside his clan's fortress a handful of times, and never beyond the borders of the town. He knew he should've been grateful. His sisters, still only four, weren't even allowed outside the Uchiha estate. The town of Shiromachi was small and skirted the Uchiha fortress which overlooked the town from the top of a hill. The locals were a superstitious folk, always speaking in their own harsh tongue and keeping any Uchiha at a respectful distance. According to Sasuke's mother, they seemed to be under the impression that the Uchiha were gods, come to protect them. Unlike his mother, Sasuke decided not to bother correcting them.

But even as a 'god', his world was a very small one. Even when he climbed to the top of the tallest tower of the fortress all Sasuke ever gleaned were endless rice paddies beyond a thick, unforgiving jungle. Where did Itachi and his Uchiha brethren disappear to on their missions? Where were these other villages his kin would speak of? He knew he hadn't been born here. Mikoto had once told him that he and Itachi, unlike their younger sister, had been born in 'Konoha'. She'd also mentioned a place called 'Fire Country' though Sasuke couldn't say he'd ever heard of it. The locals only ever spoke of Lightning Country and Earth Country and sometimes, in hushed whispers, Sasuke even heard them speak about a place called the Land of Rain. But these were only whispers and here-say. Sasuke had still never actually _seen_ any of these places.

He knew there was some sort of war going on though, far to the north. He'd have been stupid _not_ to know. It was _all_ the Uchiha talked about. All his _father_ talked about. Just like how they always whispered about 'Konoha'. After a while it began to take on a mythical quality, this 'Konoha'.

Someday, Sasuke vowed, he would leave his clan's fortress and he would find it.

**A/N:** Sorry, another short one. Try not to hate me too much. I'm still trying to get into all these characters' heads and not make them _too_ sound out-of-character. I made a map of the new boundary lines, countries, and just where the hell our characters are hanging out now that none of them are in Konoha. There's a link on my profile page. Go check it out! Hopefully it makes things a little less confusing.

I listened to the _House of Cards_ Main Title Theme on a loop while writing this. It just screams 'Uchiha' to me.

Character's ages and daemons:

**Fugaku** (45) - **Nadezhda** (tiger)

**Mikoto** (40) - **Khurshid** (martial eagle)

**Itachi** (17) - **Sethunya** (black panther)

**Sasuke** (12) - **Ksenija** (unsettled)

**Mitsuko** (4) - **Hashim** (unsettled)

**Misaki** (4) - **Khayrat** (unsettled)


	3. Scheherazade

**A/N:** This is so unbetaed man. Forgive me.

The title of this chapter comes from the song _Scheherazade Op. 35: The Story of the Kalender Prince (opening)_ by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as the legendary character from _One Thousand and One Nights_.

**A Brave New World**

"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time." - _Rabindranath Tagore_

**03. Scheherazade**

Najmahrian summers were as hot as they were humid and Sakura was right in the thick of it living in the capital. She didn't mind so much, though her father was another matter entirely. Kenji hadn't grown up in Hadar as his daughter had and so was still quite unused to the country's sticky climate. Usually Sakura's father just hid himself away in their musty bookshop until winter came around again.

Sakura loved Hadar.

The Najmahrian capital city lay in the heart of the island kingdom, surrounded by wet jungle and towering mountains. At night, when her father closed up his shop, Sakura would wander with Nicodemus through the old winding streets of the city, streets so old she could see wagon-tracks borne into the cobblestones. Ancient temples lined the paths alongside apartment buildings and lush gardens, a queer mishmash of old and new. Sometimes Sakura would visit the market, just down the street from her house, just to catch the smells of spices and the hear the mixed chattering of Najmahrian and the Common Tongue and smatterings of completely new languages all together.

Mostly though, she stayed in her father's shop and read.

All she knew of the world came from her books. And Sakura wanted to know _everything_. From dusty tomes on Najmahrian history to crisp new medical texts to fantastic tales from distant lands, Sakura and Nicodemus consumed them all with the voraciousness of the starved. Over the years Kenji only continued to feed his daughter's vast appetite for knowledge, despite the fact that it was odd for a girl-child to be so learned in Najmah, let alone know how to read _at all_.

Sakura may have worn the customary headscarf as all Najmahrian women did and spoke their language as fluently as one who had been born there, but she was _not_ a Najmahrian. Her pale skin and pink hair were evidence enough of that fact. But Sakura cared little for what other's thought she _should_ be. She had no mother to emulate, only the mournful rememberings from her sorrowful father. 'Saki' and 'Konoha' was nothing but words to her. Still, she often wondered what her life would've been like if she's grown amongst her father's people. Amongst _shinobi_, those almost mythical warriors from her books, capable of near impossible fetes.

There were no shinobi in Najmah though. Their's was a kingdom built on wealth and trade, far from the squabbling mainland. The King of Najmah had no need of shinobi. He had an army of course, but it saw little use, his country instead preferring to settle its disputes peacefully (along with the promise of gold and trade sanctions of course). And so Sakura settled for reading about her father's mysterious people from her books.

But then, one day, Sakura met one.

* * *

Sakura had never been a particularly religious girl. Her books and her father's distinctly atheistic leanings left her suspicious of most religious ideologies. Still, she and her daemon loved Hadar's grand temples and colorful holidays. And so it was on one such holiday, a day devoted to the worship of the local trickster god which encouraged rowdy behavior and copious amounts of alcohol, that Sakura found herself climbing the steps to one of the local temples. Unlike its more important cousins, this temple stood on a high hill at the edge of the city, hidden from sight by the green foliage of the jungle. It was a quiet and peaceful place and therefore Sakura's favorite.

Nicodemus flew ahead of her as a white starling and she struggled to keep up even as her skirts tangled with her feet. She was _so_ caught up with keeping her skirts free of her legs in fact, that she almost didn't notice Nicodemus's chirped warning.

Almost.

A man stood several stairs up from her. He was tall and dark-haired and his strange clothing staunchly marked him as a foreigner. His panther daemon stood close to his side, eyeing Sakura with fierce yellow eyes.

"I am sorry," the stranger said in thickly accented Najmahrian. "I assumed everyone was down in the streets for the festival."

"They _are_," Sakura replied, Najmahrian flowing from her lips far more gracefully. Nicodemus changed into a spider monkey and swung onto her shoulder.

"But you are not?" the man assessed her with his dark eyes, a curious tilt to his head.

"No," Sakura shook her head. And then, before she could stop herself, she blurted, "You're _not_ a Najmahrian."

The man face didn't alter and yet for some reason Sakura though he looked amused. "Neither are you."

Sakura scoffed. "Of _course_ I am!" Nicodemus's fur fluffed in an irritated fashion.

"As you say," the man nodded.

"Well your Najmahrian is terrible!" Sakura snapped childishly.

The man laughed. "Yes, I imagine it is," he replied in the Common Tongue. Sakura suddenly felt very chastened though she couldn't say why.

"I'm sorry," she said, switching to her father's native tongue.

"Ah," the man smiled, impressed. "And here I thought you were a Najmahrian? And yet you speak the Common Tongue?"

"My father taught me," Sakura replied in way of explanation.

"And who is he?"

"Kenji Haruno, of Konoha!" Sakura boasted happily.

The man's eyes flashed with interest and his daemon took a step forward…but then her ears twitched and she swung her head around to stare off into the jungle. The man glanced off in the same direction and than turned back to Sakura.

"Well it was pleasure meeting you, daughter of Kenji Haruno," he said quickly before he slipped past her gracefully, moving down the steep steps hurriedly. His daemon followed like a wraith-like shadow and Sakura and Nicodemus watched them both go until they disappeared behind the foliage.

"What a strange man," Sakura declared, resuming her climb up the temple steps.

"And dangerous," agreed Nicodemus, clinging to her headscarf. "Did you see his daemon?"

"Of _course_ I saw his daemon!" She glanced behind her again, as if the black panther daemon were still standing just behind her.

"Only warriors have great cats as daemons," Nicodemus reminded her, strangely quiet. He was right of course. Only savage, powerful people's daemons settled as big cats or wolves or raptors and the like. Her father, ever a peaceful, learned man had a plain, ordinary duck for a daemon. She was told her mother's had been a dove, before she'd been killed. Sakura wondered what a man with such a ferocious daemon was doing in such a peaceful city.

Later, when she had reached the top of the hill and stood before the temple, Sakura realized that she'd never learned the strange man's name.

**A/N:** I don't think I quite caught Itachi's personality as well as I would've liked in this chapter. My excuse is that this is an AU and so he's turned out differently than if he'd murdered his family and joined a criminal organization. Now what is he doing in Sakura's hometown? There is an answer to that but it shall be discussed in greater detail elsewhere. Anyway, if you've got any thoughts, concerns, or just plain want to tell me how much you hate this story (though please give me real reasons and not just 'I hate you, you suck'), please let me know!

Character's ages and daemons:

**Kenji** (38) - **Arihel** (duck)

**Saki** (deceased) - **Symeon** (dove)

**Sakura** (12) - **Nicodemus** (unsettled)


	4. When Can I See You Again?

**A/N:** Three updates on the same day? It must be Christmas!

Chapter title comes from the song _When Can I See You Again?_ by Owl City.

**A Brave New World**

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - _Benjamin Franklin_

**04. When Can I See You Again?**

Kakashi was thumbing through his novel when Aseneth finally appeared at his feet. He closed the book with an audible 'snap' before pocketing it and turned to his daemon expectantly.

"Well?"

"It's them. They're waiting at the bar down the road." his daemon explained in her usual quiet smokey voice. Kakashi nodded and made a show of straightening his shirt before joining the crowd on the street, Aseneth following on silent paws.

It was only just past sundown and the streets of Buru were already unusually crowded. Most of the storefronts had begun to close down but the warm fluorescent light coming from the bars and restaurants beckoned to street-goers invitingly. Kakashi slipped through the throngs of people easily, ducking into a bar whose sign was missing several letters. Its patrons boasted mainly burnt out businessmen and the occasional 'lady of the night' but Kakashi easily spotted the people he'd come here to see. It was an easy enough thing for a shinobi to disguise themselves with a henge, but it was infinitely more difficult to cloak their _daemons_. To Kakashi, the elegant swan and gazelle next to the two average-looking businessmen at the booth at the back of the room were practically a neon sign.

"Oh you shouldn't have," Kakashi said merrily as he snagged ahold of one of the drinks on the table as he slipped into the booth. One of the men growled.

"Fuck you I paid nine ryo for that!" the swan daemon's feathers ruffled. Jiraiya then.

"Even better," Kakashi replied with a nod as he downed the glass completely.

"We didn't call you here so you could drink all our alcohol," the other man, Shikaku, said tiredly. He looked every bit the exhausted businessman come to escape his pestering wife and demanding job.

"Didn't you?" the Copy-nin asked. "Come on, a bar? Really? Couldn't we have taken our shady dealings to a nice quiet tea house? We would look so much less suspicious there"

"Well we _are_ criminals."

"Depends on who you ask."

"I think most of our fellow patrons would gladly sell us out for a few extra drinks," Jiraiya pointed out bitterly as he shamelessly stole Shikaku's drink from across the table.

"So, what news brings us to this godforsaken side of the country?" Kakashi asked. He almost was afraid to ask. News was never good these days.

Shikaku frowned. "Well there's the usual updates on Iwa and Kumo still fighting over Fire Country like a couple of squabbling children."

"What's left of it anyway," Jiraiya added darkly. And he was right, Fire Country as a whole hadn't existed since Konoha's fall twelve years prior. After Iwa and Kumo had taken the country by force, they'd turned on each other and now fought over the small sliver of territory in the middle, where Konoha now stood in ruins.

"There are also reports of Rain Country increasing their territory," Shikaku continued on. "They've even taken land from Earth Country."

"And what do we _know_ of Rain Country?" Kakashi pressed.

"Virtually nothing," answered Jiraiya. "Their borders are locked tight and anyone who _does_ manage to venture in _never_ comes out."

"Who runs the place?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," Jiraiya shrugged, throwing up his hands. "If I had even half the budget and contacts I once did maybe this would be an entirely different story."

"But that's not even the best news," Shikaku interjected. Kakashi frowned unhappily. This couldn't be good. "Several of the Hyūga have been kidnapped by Kumo."

Kakashi groaned.

"On the bright side, Minato's kid just turned seven." Jiraiya said with somewhat more cheer. "She's adorable, really."

"How are they?" Kakashi asked.

"As well as can be expected. Still safe. Kushina's…coping."

The three men fell silent. Kakashi cast an involuntary glance down as his daemon. Aseneth stared back up at him with unblinking golden eyes. He couldn't imagine ever being separated from her. The mere thought sent chills up his spine. Spooked now, the shinobi finished exchanging what scraps of information they could before Kakashi decided to escape first and leave them with the bill. He could still hear their loud protests halfway down the street.

Thankfully, despite everything, some things still hadn't changed.

**A/N:** New characters show up and we're finally getting some new info. Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Character's ages and daemons:

**Kakashi** (26) - **Aseneth** (bobcat)

**Jiraiya** (50) - **Sehrazat** (swan)

**Shikaku** (38) - **Ayodele** (gazelle)


End file.
